1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices for material handling and processing, and more specifically to a rotary manipulator for handling goods being processed on a conveyor line.
The present manipulator has a rotational or pivoting axis lateral to the direction of travel of the conveyed goods, and includes at least one lateral flat therein for momentarily capturing conveyed goods therein, for inverting, stacking, and/or aligning the goods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various conveyor and line processing systems have been developed over the years, for the continuous and/or mass production of various goods. This is particularly true in the food processing industry, where conveyors are used in the preparation and processing of foods at just about every step of the baking process.
However, certain baked goods (Moon Pies, tm; Oreos, tm; etc.) are formed of two cookie, cake, or biscuit portions sandwiching a filling material of some sort. For the sake of esthetics and symmetry, these types of goods are conventionally formed with the two baked portions facing away from one another, i.e., with the bottom one inverted relative to the top one. This inversion of one of the baked cake or cookie portions relative to the other, and the alignment of the two portions after inverting the lower portion, has continued to be a problem in the baking industry. While numerous devices have been developed in the past (as discussed further below), they generally have proven relatively cumbersome, unreliable, inconsistent, and/or costly to maintain.
Accordingly, a need will be seen for a manipulator for conveyor goods which is capable of inverting selected goods and positioning those inverted goods beneath non-inverted goods to provide a symmetrical sandwich. The present manipulator may also be used for other purposes, such as alignment of randomly positioned goods on a conveyor, and/or the stacking of goods on a conveyor. While the present manipulator is particularly well adapted for use in the manufacture of sandwich type baked goods, it will be seen that it is also adaptable to other food or non-food articles being processed using a conveyor system, as well. A discussion of the related art of which the present inventor is aware, and its differences and distinctions from the present invention, is provided below.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,564,027 issued on Aug. 14, 1951 to Rollin D. Osgood, titled "Sheet Handling Apparatus," describes a wheel having a plurality of spokes extending radially therefrom, with the spokes rotating between a plurality of conveyor belts which serve to deliver and remove sheet material from the wheel. The rotation of the spokes is between alternating belt members. Among other functions, the Osgood apparatus is adapted to invert every sheet which passes therethrough, rather than selective articles in a predetermined ratio, as in the present invention. The Osgood device is incapable of passing any of the sheets thereover without inversion, as the spokes of the device extend far above the surface of the feed conveyor, and incoming articles being conveyed on the feed conveyor cannot pass over the top of the spoked inverting wheel of the Osgood apparatus. In contrast, the upper surface of the present inverting device is generally tangent with the upper surface of at least the feed conveyor, and may allow a predetermined number or ratio of articles to pass thereover without inverting.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,290,974 issued on Dec. 13, 1966 to Tom Rowlands, titled "Manufacture Of Mouthpiece Cigarettes," describes a rotary wheel for flipping precut and unattached lengths of cigarette filters end for end, for positioning the more cleanly cut end outwardly during assembly with the cigarette. The device comprises a radially protruding finger which bears downwardly on the somewhat resilient filter material to provide a grip. The wheel rotates, to flip the filter element end for end. Clearance for the filter element is provided by a recess in the wheel when the filter is essentially standing vertically during the operation. The device does not transfer any goods from one conveyor to another, as provided by the present invention, and cannot be adapted for use in baked goods, due to the non-resilience and fragility of such goods. Moreover, the Rowlands device is disposed above the feed conveyor, rather than with its upper portion essentially tangent to the feed conveyor, as in the present device.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,114 issued on Feb. 15, 1972 to Stanley W. Crispe et al., titled "Biscuit Handling Machinery," describes a circumferentially slotted rotary wheel having a series of depressions formed about the circumference thereof, with the depressions having alternating depths with one another. A series of fingers or prongs fit within the slots of the wheel, extending substantially to the bottom of the shallower depressions but leaving a space between the prongs and the bottoms of the deeper depressions. Biscuits (cookies) are deposited in each of the depressions, with the prongs picking up those within the shallower depressions and depositing them on a first output conveyor, while passing over the biscuits within the deeper depressions. The biscuits of the deeper depressions continue around the wheel, being held in place within their respective depressions by a lower guard before being deposited inverted on a lower output conveyor. Thus, the Crispe apparatus actually rotates the conveyor goods about its periphery and requires a retaining guard, rather than capturing the first edge of an article and causing it to flip inverted and fall to the lower conveyor, as in the present invention. Moreover, the Crispe device would require modification in order to invert any other number of articles than every second one. The present manipulator comprises a single, unitary component, devoid of other components such as guards, pickup fingers or prongs, etc., and is easily adjusted to invert or stack any of a predetermined ratio of goods, merely by adjusting the rotational speed of the device. The present device may also be used as an alignment tool, unlike Crispe.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,433 issued on Jan. 10, 1978 to Robert E. Phipps, titled "Packaging Machinery," describes a generally U-shaped upright conveyor which collects upright articles at an entrance thereof and routes them around the U configuration to exit inverted. The inverted articles are then nested in a horizontal disposition with upright articles from another conveyor line. The Phipps device cannot select a limited number of articles from a predetermined ratio for inversion, as is possible with the present invention. Moreover, the Phipps device cannot stack or sandwich upright and inverted articles together, as provided by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,492 issued on May 28, 1985 to Heinz Focke, titled "Method And Apparatus For Transporting Packs From A Feed Track To A Discharge-Conveyor Track," describes a double wheel configuration with the wheels having mutually orthogonal axes. The first wheel is relevant to the present invention, in that it tips the packages through 90 degrees about a lateral axis. However, no means is provided by Focke for completely inverting the goods, as provided by the present invention. Also, the Focke device acts on every article passing therethrough, and cannot bypass a predetermined ratio of articles to turn only every second, third, or some other ratio, as provided by the present inverting mechanism. Also, the Focke mechanism cannot act as a stacker, as provided by the present invention, but rather acts to "unstack" a previously serially stacked row of goods. Finally, the Focke device cannot serve as an alignment device, as can the present device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,075 issued on Apr. 21, 1992 to Lawrence Wafford et al., titled "Fabric Turner," describes a pinch roller system in which one roller is disposed within the mouth of a slot having a generally bell-shaped cross sectional opening. Fabric falls downwardly into the slot, whereupon it is gripped within the lower portion of the slot to hold the upper portion in contact with the roller. The roller then transfers the fabric to the opposite side of the slot and rolls the sheet out of the slot to the opposite side, thus inverting the sheet. The device is not suitable for non-planar or relatively frangible or rigid goods, such as baked goods, and hence cannot be adapted for use with such. While the Wafford et al. device can stack two sheets atop one another, the stacking means cannot work with more than two sheets nor can it operate with relatively thick and rigid articles, such as baked goods.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,953 issued on Feb. 22, 1994 to Herman D. Mims, titled "Flip-Slide Apparatus," describes a system having an upper feed conveyor and a lower output conveyor. A generally triangular component is disposed therebetween. The triangular component can be made to oscillate back and forth, to serve as a guide to deflect articles (cookies) rearwardly beneath the edge of the upper conveyor, where they land inverted on the lower conveyor, or to serve as a slide to allow the articles to slide downwardly and land upright on the lower conveyor. No means is apparent for positioning the articles in registry or atop one another, as provided by the present rotary inverting device.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,496 issued on May 20, 1997 to Herman D. Mims, titled "Apparatus And Method For Flipping And Positioning Articles," describes an apparatus somewhat like the apparatus of the Mims '953 U.S. Patent discussed immediately above. However, the device of the '496 Mims U.S. Patent utilizes an inverted, generally V-shaped component to guide articles from the first conveyor, with the V-shaped guide being positionable between two different positions to guide articles to either an upright or inverted position on the lower belt. As the device cannot place the upright and inverted articles in registry with one another (i.e., with the upright articles atop the inverted articles), a relatively complex mechanism of selectively active retaining bars, retractable plates, and gates is used to position the upright and inverted articles in adjacent alternating rows. The present rotary manipulator accomplishes all of the above functions and more, through a relatively simple yet novel device.
None of the above inventions and patents, either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.